A surprise party was planned to celebrate the ex-Paratrooper’s 94th birthday this weekend, but he passed away six days before.

The heroic veteran slipped away at 11am on Sunday, holding the hands of two nurses in Salford Royal Hospital as the Last Post was played across the country.

The Second World War hero was about to be reunited with two old comrades, Ken Oldham and Ray Schulk, who fought with him side by side in the 13th Battalion 6th Airborne Division during the Allied invasion in June 1944.

The men were among 100 guests due to attend at party at Broughton House care home for ex-servicemen, in Salford, where Ralph had lived since last year after moving from his home in Altrincham.

His daughter-in-law from America, a military band, friends and volunteers from the home and the Mayor of Salford were also guests.

Ex-paratrooper, Ralph Jones, at the time of the Normandy Landings, 1944 (Picture: MEN)

Ralph, originally from the Staffordshire village of Norton Canes, was with the 6th Airborne Division on June 6, 1944, for Operation Tonga -part of the D-Day Landings.

He later vividly described the operation in his own words:

RIP Ralph Jones

‘The moon is out and there are 90 of us gliders in the air. It’s beautiful actually, very beautiful. But the porthole blows before we’re even close to the ground. The whole glider is screaming with the wind. Absolutely murderous.

‘The glider overturns once, rights itself and we go right through the brick wall of a house and then slide along for about 100 yards. Three of the guys are gone. We’re under heavy fire and it’s quite a struggle to get out. Then I get shot – one, two, three times.

‘Next thing I know the rest of them have disappeared. They must’ve left me. I spot my mate on the ground too, in bad shape, worse than me. I try to revive him. Nothing. I see the Jeep from the glider close by – I put him in the back. I try to revive him again but he’s gone. Then one of my mates from the regiment joins me and tells me to get in.

‘Eventually we make it to the beach but the cliffs are too steep. We have to go on foot – and I’m in no state for walking that distance. There are more soldiers there but they seem reluctant to drag me out. As if it’s going to be a hassle.

‘Finally they say well come on then and drag me down to the boathouse. Grenades are going off everywhere. We’re taken up in this air ambulance.

‘There’s wounded Germans in there too. I can’t believe it. “We’ve been ruddy fighting you”, I say. And as it’s going up I think about the bullet in my arm, the bullet in my stomach, my foot shot up, and all I can think is the wife is going to kill me.’

A soldier stands by poppies during the annual Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph memorial in Whitehall, central London (Picture: PA)

Ty Platten, chief executive of Broughton House, said: ‘Paratrooper Ralph Jones was a veteran of the Normandy Landings and the Rhine Crossing. Ralph was a man shot four times during both engagements.

‘That alone did not define Ralph as a man. What did was his modesty and humility as a man. Ralph was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things from 1940 to 1945, when his people and his country’s sovereignty were threatened, he not only defended the rights of his fellow countrymen but he went into Europe and defended the rights of his fellow Europeans.

‘He was a man who walked this earth with courage and humility, and the world is a poorer place for his passing.’